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Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

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Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#541

Post by onecommentman »

_muff1nman_ wrote: post #494
pengaru wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For every anecdote you can provide of someone being careless on foot I can find multiple instances of a stopped vehicle being smashed into on a highway. Now we even have the pleasure of anticipating Tesla Autopilot to plow into us while stopped on the shoulder, apparently made even more likely if there's an emergency vehicle present.

I didn't disagree that sometimes it makes sense to get out of your vehicle if the road is all iced up and one is worried about a trucker crushing into you due to fog. Rather I'm more refuting the following statement: > unless you're truly in no mans land without any reachable alternatives for shelter, it's best to lock up the vehicle with a note on the dash and make your way to a shelter out of harms way The presence…

If there is this much confusion in a online community like this about what to do in such situations, either

a more thorough study needs to be done by the Feds or

a better job communicating what definitive study results recommend, with easy rules of thumb like “if you can see the lights of a shelter on the road from your vehicle and you haven’t seen a vehicle on the road in the last hour, then walk to the shelter’.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#542

Post by jaybrendansmith »

imgabe wrote: post #473
GlenTheMachine wrote: post #396

There are a lot of comments here about why public transit in the DC area doesn't work, but nobody that I've seen has put their finger on it. The biggest issue is that the area covers two states, at least ten counties depending on what you count as the “DC area”, plus the District of Columbia, which isn't a state, doesn't have control over its own budget, and has no representation in Congress. Oh, and in Virginia citi…

I lived in the DC area for 20 years (1999-2019) and commuted daily on the Metro for many of those years. The things you say are true, but they were also true 15-20 years ago when the Metro was leaps and bounds better than it is today. They were true in the 1970s when the Metro was first built. So it can't be the whole story. There's much more to it. It's not just that the Metro is bad, it's that it keeps getting wors…

So ... do any of you follow politics? One of the two major parties has given up on governing the country, and has not done so for ten years. This 'grand' old party seems to be toying with the idea of giving up on Democracy next. And we are confused as to why the DC Metro system cannot be fixed?? Here's a tip: Fix that party, and you will find that suddenly the DC Metro has money to fix the automatic braking system.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#543

Post by caf »

perl4ever wrote: post #431
ddingus wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. We had a family incident a number of years back. Stuck on a mountain pass in the cold for the better part of a day. We've also seen a breakdown in the desert, and that one was a couple days. We always refuel before entering a risky part of travel. Never count on getting there. Make sure. And in a scenario like this that refuel could provide a days worth of heat, depending. No matter what, it's a lot more heat th…

>Rough metric is you get 1 hour of engine idle per gallon. Some cars do better than that. I have a non-plug in hybrid, that gets almost 50 mpg consistently; I've got to experiment and extrapolate to see if it's much better. I would like to believe so. I recently learned of the existence of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_heater and wonder how efficient they are. These seem to be mostly outdated, but I guess t…

You can buy diesel heaters for caravans, they seem to use about 0.6-0.7 litres/hour (eg. this sort of thing: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K1JJ92S/ ).

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#544

Post by Bud »

MathCodeLove wrote: post #540
Bud wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Not everything is racially motivated. Eventually speculation like yours crosses a boundary from legitimate social concern to conspiracy and seeing racist boogeymen in every shadow.

"Eventually"? Yeah, except when it doesn't.

You're right: not everything is racially motivated. Except for the things that so plainly and obviously are.

Also: please do not implicitly label my concern as being not legitimate. I'm not really that into clumsy gaslighting.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#545

Post by shkkmo »

MathCodeLove wrote: post #540
Bud wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Not everything is racially motivated. Eventually speculation like yours crosses a boundary from legitimate social concern to conspiracy and seeing racist boogeymen in every shadow.

It's funny how the two major regions of the US that clearly deserve statehood (DC and Puerto Rico) but have been denied that right for decades, seem to be areas with lots of poor non-whites.

Racism is not the only factor in play here (political balance of power is a huge factor), but to deny that racism has played a significant role in creating this situation is ridiculous.

I place that racism squarely in the laps of both parties since they both deserve that blame.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#546

Post by x86_64Ubuntu »

MathCodeLove wrote: post #540
Bud wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Not everything is racially motivated. Eventually speculation like yours crosses a boundary from legitimate social concern to conspiracy and seeing racist boogeymen in every shadow.

It's the US, it's safe to assume that anomalies concerning political power are due to maintaining the racial hierarchy. Just because it's ugly and interferes with the American myth of equality doesn't mean it's not true.

"One reader wrote to the Washington Evening Star, saying: “If you get rid of the 90,000 negroes residing in this city I am in favor of suffrage. As long as they are here I am opposed to it,” according to the report."[1]

[1]https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/04/14/dc-black-v...

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#547

Post by teeray »

emptybottle wrote: post #73

A good reminder to keep some warm blankets/coats/gloves/hats in your trunk, along with some non-perishable snacks and a first-aid kit & flashlight. Water is harder to store in the winter since it will freeze and burst containers if full, but snow can be melted given a container to put it in. Also a good to refuel often. I try treat 1/2 a tank as empty and stop accordingly. On longer trips it lines up well with bathro…

Three more things:

1. Go check the pressure in your spare this week. You’ll thank me later.

2. Put a fire extinguisher in your car.

3. Get some road flares. They’re cheap and keep for a long time. They make you vastly more visible than someone holding up a phone light towards oncoming traffic.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#548

Post by cco »

teakettle42 wrote: post #457
gnopgnip wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plastic water bottles won't burst when frozen. You can get a case of water bottles for under $10.

Some will burst or leak, and they leach an unpleasant plastic taste into the water — especially in hot weather.

I change them out at the end of each year and use them to water plants. I'm very sure I'll not mind the plastic taste in an emergency situation :)

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#549

Post by MathCodeLove »

x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #546
MathCodeLove wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everything is racially motivated. Eventually speculation like yours crosses a boundary from legitimate social concern to conspiracy and seeing racist boogeymen in every shadow.

It's the US, it's safe to assume that anomalies concerning political power are due to maintaining the racial hierarchy. Just because it's ugly and interferes with the American myth of equality doesn't mean it's not true. "One reader wrote to the Washington Evening Star, saying: “If you get rid of the 90,000 negroes residing in this city I am in favor of suffrage. As long as they are here I am opposed to it,” accordin…

No, it's not safe to assume. It's ridiculous to assume that there's even some intrinsic "racial hierarchy" to begin with. Some demographics do better on average than others, much like how Asian-Americans have a higher average household income than White-Americans, but despite what twitter says that's largely not due to any deeply rooted systemic issue. I don't think a single readers letter to some local news organization is really any proof of your claim.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#550

Post by R0b0t1 »

imgabe wrote: post #495
nradov wrote: post #484

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A better option would be to cede most of the residential and commercial areas of DC to surrounding states. Just keep a few blocks containing the key federal government buildings, parks, monuments, and museums.

That's not a better option. VA and MD don't want that. The people in DC don't want that. The people in DC want to be a state. That's what matters. We're far removed from it historically, but this country was created by groups of people coming together to decide they want to form a state and then joining up with other states. It's literally right there in the name: United States. It's kind of, like, our whole deal as…

Have the people considered moving?
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